The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-10-14

pet blew, not a plume huttered. All
the music and the pomp were
overhead. Our world opened for him moth
ing better than barn door. The Rajah
of Cashmere sent to Victoria bedstead of
carved gold and a canopy that cost $780,
600, but the world had for the Prince of
Heaven and earth only a litter of straw.
The Crown jewels in the Tower of London
amount to $4,000, 900, but this member of
eternal royalty had nowhere to lay his
head. To know how poor he was, ask the
camel drivers, ask the shepherds, ask
Mary, ask the three wise men of the East
who afterNEard came there, young Caspar
and middle-aged Balthasar and old Mel
chiOr. To know how poor he was, examine
all the records of real estate in all that
Oriental country and see what vineyard,
or what house, or what field he owned.
Not one. OF what mortgage was he the
mortgage? OF what tenement was he the
landlord? OF what lease was he the lessee?
Who ever paid him rent? Not owning the
boat on which he sailed, or the beast on
which he rode, or the pillow on which he
slept. He had so little estate that in order
to pay his tax he had to perform mira Gle,
putting the amount of the assess
ment in a fish's mouth and having it
hauled ashore. And after his death the
world rushed in to take an inventory of
the garments he had worn, sleeping in
them by night and travelling in them by
day, bearing on them the dust of the high
way and the saturation Of the sea. Paul
in my text did not go far from hitting the
mark, did he, when he said of the mis-
sionary Prince:
For your sakes he became poor2
The world could have treated him better
if it had chosen. 1t had all the means for
making his earthly condition comfort
able Only a few years before, when
Pompey, the General, arrived at Brindisi,
he was greeted with arches and a costly
column which celebrated the 100000
people whom he had killed or conquered,
and he was allowed to wear his triumphal
robe in the Senate. The world had ap-
plause for imperial butchers but buffeting
for the Prince of Peace; plenty of
golden chalices for the favored to
drink out of, but our Prince must
put his lips TO the bucket Of
the we'll by the roadside after he had
begged for a drink. Poor? Born in an
other mans barn and eating at another
mans table, and cruising the lake in an
other mans fishing smack, and buried in
another mans mausoleum. Four inspired
authors wrote OF his biography, and in
Vulnerable lives Of Christ have been pub
lished, but he composed his autobiog
raphy in most compressed way. He
said:
haven trodden the wine-press alone.
Poor in the estimation of nearly oil the
prosperous classes. They called him Sab
bath h-breaker, wine-bibber, traitor, bias
phemer, and ransacked the dictionary Of
opprobrium from lid to lid to express their
detestation. 1 can think now Of only two
well-to-do men who espoused his cause,
Nicodemus and Joseph, of Arimathea. His
friends for the most part were people who,
in that climate where ophthalmy or in
hammation of the eye-ball sweeps ever
and anon as a scourge, had become blind,
| sick people who were anxious to get well,
and troubled people in whose family
there was some one dead or
dying. If he had a purse at all it was
empty, or we would have heard what was
done with the contents at the post-mor-
tenn. Poor? The pigeon in the dove-cote,
the rabbit in its burrow, the silk-worm in
its cocoon, the bee in its hive is better pro-
vided for, better off, better sheltered.
Aye, the brute creation has a home on
earth, which Christ had not.
II on windy days the raven
Gambol like dancing slIin,
Not the less he loves his haven
On the bosom of the cliff
II almost with eagle pinion
Ger the Alps the chamois roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which. doubt he calls his home.
But the Crown Prince of all heavenly
dominion had less than the raven, less
than the chamois, for he was homeless.
Aye, in the history of the universe there
is no other instance of such coming down.
Who can count the miles from the top Of
the throne to the bottom OF the cross?
| Cleopatra, giving a banquet to Anthony,
took pearl worth 100000 and dissolved
in vinegar and swallowed it. But when
our Prince, according to the evangelist, in
his last hours took the vinegar, in It had
been dissolved all the pearls of His
heavenly royalty. Down until there was
no other depth for Him to touch, troubled
until there was no other harassment to
suffer- poor until there was no other
pauperism to torture. Billions of dollars
spent in wars to destroy men, who will
furnish the statistics of the value of that
precious blood that was shed TO save us?
Ye know the grace OF our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he
became poor.
Only those who study this text in two
places can fully reach it's power, the Holy
Land of Asia Minor and the Holy Land of
Heaven. How I should like some day to
take drink out Of Jacobs well, and take
q sail on Galilee, and read the Sermon on
the Mount while standing on OEvet, and
see the wilderness where Christ was tempt
ed, and be some afternoon on Calvary at
about three o'clock, the hour at which
closed the cruc6xion, and sit under the
sycamores and by the side of brooks, and
think and dream and pray about tho pow
erty Of Him who came our souls to save.
But you and / will probably be
denied that. and 50 here, in another
continent, and in another hemisphere,
and in scenes as different as possible,
we recount, as well We may, how poor
our Heavenly Prince became. And in the
other Holy Land above we may all study
the riches that be left behind when He
started for earthly expedition. Come, let
US bargain to meet each other at the door
of the Fathers mansion, or on the bank Of
the river just whore It rolls from under the
throne, or at the outside gate. Jesus got
the contrast by exchanging that world for
this; we will get it by exchanging this
world for that. There and then you will
understand more Of the wonders Of the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who,
Though he was rich, yet Tor your saies became
poor.
Yes, grace, free grace, sovereign grace,
omnipotent grace. Among the thousands
Of words in the language there is no more
queenly word. II means free and unmerit-
ed kindness. My text has no monopoly Of
the word. One hundred and twenty-nine
times does the Bible eulogize grace. II Is
a door swung wide open to let into the
pardon Of God all the millions who choose
to enter it.
John Newton sang Of it when he wrote:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me,
Philip Doddridge put it into all hymn
ology when he wrote:
Grace, tits a charming sound,
Harmonious 10 the ear:
Heaven with tho echo hall resound,
And oil the world shah near.
One Of John Bunyan's great books is en-
titled "Abounding Grace" "It is all Of
grace that / am savedp has been on the
lips OF hundreds of dying Christians.